Renee & Mike live in the UK (Im so glad they found me!). Can imagine how hard it can be to plan your Auckland wedding from overseas. Renee told me: “Planning our wedding was so much fun, but really hard from the UK. Being from a creative background it was really hard but I had to just trust the vendors and hope that everything worked out well! I read lots of reviews and only booked people with the best reviews. Michael and my mum cooked the cake and decorated it together which was a really nice touch. It was lovely coming home and seeing Mike and my mum at the kitchen table making flowers out of icing”.

HOW THEY MET:

This lovely couple met through a mutual friend at his ‘pirate themed party’. “We both hadn’t seen the friend in a long time (I hadn’t seen him since I was 17) and we both were the only two not in costume so we naturally chatted to eachother – it was destiny, and we both knew it!”

THE BEST PART:

For them the best part of their wedding was the morning of their big day. “I am not an overly emotional person (so she says) but that morning with my two oldest and best friends (who I’d hardly seen as I hadn’t been back in NZ for two years) and my sisters was the time when for me – made it all feel very real. Reading the letter Michael wrote to me and the thoughtful gift made me a little tearful but it was just what I needed ahead of our big special moment. The best part after the wedding was looking through all the photos from the day and seeing everyone again and looking so so very happy. Knowing he was reading mine at the same time also made me really excited (and I hear he was touched as well. I cried a little, but laughed even more and loved every moment of it.

ps: I also loved seeing Michaels face when I rolled up in that gorgeous car!

Renee would recommend to other brides two things:

Write a card or note to give your other-half to read on the morning of the wedding, its nice to read someones last thoughts of you before you head off to get married.

Trust those you have chosen, these wonderful makeup artists, venue hosts, photographers and videographers do this all the time – allowing them to be creative and work with you makes everyone happy.

awwwww I’m so loving the idea of writing each other’s a card! – guys out there planning your wedding: think its a really good one!

THE RECEPTION

They had 56 guests

Their colours were: a million shades of purple and gold. “Because Im a stickler for things matching I thought intentionally not matching everything makes it a lot easier, and having lots of different shades of purple really helped with that. Our theme was sort of quirky vintage. We named our tables by the surnames of married couples that we are very close to and whom have influenced us in our relationship – we then put their wedding photo on the table. It was great for the reception as everyone was looking at who had their photo and it was an easy conversation starter”.

Venue – Villamaria Winery. Lisa was phenomenal.

Gown – Mori lee (with a lot of alterations, straps, belt etc)

Girls dresses – Monsoon

Boys suits – H&M

Flowers – Ruth Riding

Decoration – We hired from a few places including: When.squirel.met.bear, first scene, insphire. We bought a lot of little bits and painted/decorated them ourselves.

Thanks so much Renee & Mike for sharing your beautiful story. Wish you all the very best and thankssss again for booking me!